MFS Strategic Plan - A Compass For Our Future

The Moorestown Friends School Strategic Plan was officially approved by the School Committee in May 2022, following over three years of input from and planning by diverse stakeholders - and the obvious interruption of progress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Development of the plan was facilitated by Leadership + Design, a firm that uses human-centered design to help schools and communities think creatively about future opportunities and challenges.

“We are at a crossroads in our school’s history as we emerge from a global pandemic,” said Head of School Julia de la Torre. “I am energized by where this plan will take us while also feeling very grateful for the hours of insightful discussion, debate, input, and thought devoted to this process by so many members of our school community. We will build on our foundational Quaker identity and history of excellence to chart a path to meet the needs of our students as they prepare for a rapidly changing future.”

Moorestown Friends School envisions itself as a place where young people are active agents of change, addressing global challenges, stewarding shared resources, and building a community rooted in Quaker values that welcomes and honors a diversity of people and perspectives. Through innovative programming that extends beyond classroom walls, students will engage with peers and experts around the region and the world to nurture their curiosity and lead lives of courage and consequence. MFS will redefine the meaning of success in school to better reflect the needs of its students at all developmental stages, while prioritizing a sense of balance and well-being. As students navigate a changing future, their learning will be guided by meaningful questions, rooted in the real-world, and tied to Quaker values. The school will embrace a culture of innovation, understanding that educators must model the learning process for students and should be comfortable testing new ideas, evaluating teaching methods, and providing a meaningful learning journey for students from preschool through college, and well beyond.

The four strategic priorities of the plan - Inclusive Community, Global Engagement, Teaching & Learning, and Environmental Stewardship - are described in the following pages along with stories of recent initiatives that support this strategic direction.

Why a Compass?

Strategic plans have historically been maps for institutions to chart their futures. As much as maps can be helpful, they typically presume the most direct way to a destination and aren’t able to predict roadblocks, detours, or alternative destinations of value. As a school navigating uncertain times, a compass helps MFS establish a clear direction, while leaving space to chart new pathways in response to a dynamic and changing world. As a Quaker institution, MFS’ mission and values also serve as a compass to ground its work and guide the school forward. As MFS prepares students to do well and do good, the Strategic Plan and Quaker foundations will provide important direction for the school’s future.

Stay up to date with Strategic Plan progress at mfsstrategicplan.org.

Moorestown Friends School values the Inner Light in all community members and provides students with opportunities to let their lives speak. Diversity alone is not enough and, curricularly and institutionally, choices must be made that create a truly inclusive community and one that works towards an equitable and just society for all. The MFS community has become steadily more diverse in recent years, including racial, religious, socio-economic, and gender and sexual diversity, among others. Demographically, many sending communities are also growing more diverse each year. In line with the school’s Quaker mission and values, MFS embraces diversity, celebrates all differences, encourages critical thinking, and engages in respectful discourse, allowing all community members to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others. By providing an environment where students can bring their full selves to school, conditions can be created in which all students can thrive and feel a deep sense of belonging.

VISION: MFS students, faculty, and staff will not only be more diverse, but the curriculum, experiences, and institutional systems at the school will also emphasize a commitment to inclusion and belonging. We will work to eliminate barriers to full participation in the MFS experience and create conditions in which all community members can bring their full selves to school, thereby allowing them to thrive.

GOAL: Further nurture a school culture that honors the diversity of our community and promotes an inclusive experience that is aligned with our Quaker mission and values.

GOAL: Develop the school’s capacity to assess and adjust our program, traditions, facilities, and systems through an equity lens. UPCOMING INITIATIVES:

• Conduct a school-wide climate and culture assessment in partnership with Making Caring

Common at the Harvard Graduate School of Education • Ensure conflict resolution practices that emphasize Quaker values and perspective-taking • Promote governance structures and board membership that reflect an institutional commitment to belonging

UPCOMING INITIATIVES:

• Review and strengthen traditions and events to ensure a culture of belonging • Host guest speakers for families and the general public to foster cultural competency • Build an ADA path from lower to upper campus, including the addition of outdoor classroom

space

Inclusive Community Snapshot: MFS Partners with Harvard GSE Making Caring Common Project

Moorestown Friends School is partnering with Making Caring Common (MCC) - a Harvard Graduate School of Education project that is a national effort to prioritize moral and social development among children. The program includes classroom and parent/ guardian strategies aimed at creating caring and inclusive communities and developing children’s empathy, self-awareness, gratitude, and other capacities that are central to becoming contributing, responsible community members and citizens.

The MCC partnership will include a school climate and culture assessment later on in this school year to help MFS understand the lived experiences of the school community and to identify areas where a culture of belonging can be strengthened.

“I love the framework of the Making Caring Common program,” said Director of Diversity and Inclusion Dot López. “We’re actually teaching our community to care for one another, building empathy skills.” She noted her enthusiasm for the large toolbox of resources and lessons provided to faculty and staff, including three professional development webinars. A great kickoff to the program occurred in early October when MCC Director Richard Weissbourd offered a webinar titled “Raising Caring and Happy Children,” to parents, guardians, and the general public. Richard is also a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Kennedy School of Government.

According to Dot, there are three themes which will guide the work of the MCC partnership: • Building Relationships and Connection with Community • Learning and Practicing to Care Across Differences • Challenging Students to Understand and Seek Justice

One of the anchor activities will take place this Fall titled “Humans of MFS,” modeled after the popular Humans of New York photoblog and book of street portraits and interviews collected on the streets of New York City.

In the Middle School, all students in grades 5 - 8 will develop an individual snapshot of a peer over the course of a few weeks. Math Teacher Liz Moore is the lead Grade 8 advisor and, together with other lead Middle School advisors, adapted the activity for their students. “Teaching kids to care for one another is at the core of our work,” said Liz. “You can’t have an inclusive community without people trusting each other and having built-in relationships.”

Students will first work on developing their interviewing skills in preparation for empathy interviews with their partners, for whom they will eventually create a Humans of MFS snapshot. Students will learn how to take good interview notes and begin to think about the snapshot they will create, which will also include a photo. All snapshots will feature a 200-250-word caption gleaned from the empathy interview and will reflect “what makes them them.”

Middle Schoolers meet within their advisory groups three times over a two-week class cycle, sit together during Meeting for Worship, and also gather together during Community Time. “Advisory is the students’ school home,” said Liz. “It is designed to be a safe place where students can be known and be there for each other. Hopefully students will feel that it is a privilege to tell each other’s stories.”

The culmination of the project will be a “Gallery Walk” in each advisory room containing all snapshots. Students will be asked to silently observe the Gallery Walk and to provide constructive feedback to snapshot creators. Assorted snapshots will also be featured on the main Middle School bulletin board.

“I am hopeful that this project will create more empathy among students and facilitate deeper conversations in our advisory work,” said Liz.

As the world becomes exponentially more interconnected, what it means to live a consequential life can and should be global in scale and reach. With a commitment to social responsibility, equity, and justice, MFS has the opportunity to provide experiential, real-world learning that deepens students’ understanding of Quaker values while challenging them to apply their content knowledge and skills to issues of global importance. Students should engage with complex problems and ethical dilemmas, learning how to work collaboratively and lead with confident humility. In addition, through humble inquiry, students can see the world from different cultural perspectives. Developing global citizens is not only aligned with the school’s Quaker mission but it is also an opportunity to extend that mission to local and global communities, partner with dynamic institutions, and more effectively prepare students for the demands of college and beyond.

VISION: Students will be exposed to a diverse range of global perspectives through educational opportunities and immersive experiences that go beyond travel alone. By engaging students’ natural curiosity and appreciation for other cultures, students will have a nuanced understanding of cultural context and how it informs our sense of identity and place, as well as how it shapes views on global issues.

GOAL: Design educational experiences that are timely and relevant and encourage global understanding as well as deeper self-awareness for students. UPCOMING INITIATIVES:

• Design and implement a Lower School Spanish program • Partner with World Leadership School to enhance existing experiential learning opportunities to foster student global literacy and engagement • Partner with local and international institutions to support hands-on and peer-to-peer global learning

Intensive Learning efforts have included service and cultural exploration in many different locales; above are MFS groups in Greece (2019) and Puerto Rico (2022).

Global Engagement Snapshot: Students Prepare for Summer 2023 Global Leadership Summit in Germany

Thirteen Upper School students will have the opportunity to tackle global issues from different perspectives while communicating across cultures as part of a three-day “Global Leadership Summit - Creating a Sustainable Future,” taking place in Berlin, Germany in July 2023. The European trip will also include tours and engagement in two other cities - Lucerne, Switzerland and Freiburg, Germany.

After the students return from the Summit, they will be charged with a real-world environmental sustainability project that will take place during the 202324 school year. The cohort will meet monthly beginning in November, exploring topics such as climate science, histories and cultures of the region, and strategies for collaborating and learning across cultures. They will also brainstorm about changes they would like to see at MFS and how they can help shape the future of the school in the area of sustainability. Students were selected as part Thirteen students and three faculty advisors will travel to of an extensive application process which took place in Switzerland and Germany to participate in the Global Leadership Spring 2022. Summit in Summer 2023.

“There is a great quote from John Dewey which I think sums this opportunity up well: ‘Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.’ Education, therefore, is a process of learning by doing and not simply preparation for the future,” said Head of School Julia de la Torre. “This is a great opportunity for students to see other countries living their commitment to sustainability, and I look forward to seeing how our students bring their learning to MFS and their local communities.” The fifth-year Head of School has long had a passion for these types of experiences and served as Executive Director of Primary Source, a non-profit focused on global education and citizenship for K-12 teachers, from 2010-15.

Julia, along with Science Teacher Matt Lubicky and History Teacher Jackie Scully, will lead the MFS delegation on the pre-Summit tour of Lucerne and Freiburg, where they will explore environmental sustainability in action. Switzerland and Germany have been at the forefront of some of the world’s most innovative approaches to sustainability. Students will learn from the expertise of leaders in both cities as they examine the effects of the environment on our well-being and discover how sustainability efforts can make an impact on a global scale.

Once at the Berlin conference, students will be placed in innovation teams with peers from around the world where they will hear from renowned speakers and work with local and global experts to focus on solutions related to the Summit’s sustainability theme. Teams will engage in a sustainability challenge during the Summit with the winning team’s prototype/solution added to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

The MFS cohort will work together throughout the 2023-24 school year on their action projects, which will have a direct impact on the MFS community. Regular meetings will take place throughout the 2023-24 school year as part of the requirements of Summit participation.

“We need to see beyond the United States and learn about how other countries deal with the environment differently than ours,” said Maxwell Wang ’25. “The Global Leadership Summit offers such a great opportunity for its participants to exchange ideas and evaluate the current policies adopted by other countries. Protecting the Earth is our common goal. We need to work together. I look forward to meeting others from around the world in Berlin next year!”

Julia de la Torre is eager to provide students with practical skills that provide immediate value. “It is great for students to see themselves as agents of change,” she said. “Experiences like these aren’t just preparing you for what is to come, but they engage students now in real-world issues that can inspire them to action.”

Stay tuned for updates this time next year after the MFS delegation returns from Europe and their action projects commence.

This unique experiential learning opportunity was made possible thanks to a generous donation from an alumni parent.

Students are hungry for relevant learning that will best position them for success in the future; however, recent trends in adolescent behavior make clear that close attention to the physical and emotional health and well-being of teenagers is of paramount importance in schools. This means we must prioritize educating students in how to care for themselves, and provide support systems that facilitate their growth in these areas.

As MFS leans into our twin pillars of academic excellence and spiritual/ethical growth, we want to continue to nurture the whole child and encourage students to maintain a sense of balance. We also know that the most meaningful and academically rich learning happens when it is authentically connected to the real world. Children should experience learning in a hands-on way, pursuing questions of inquiry that give them a sense of purpose and connection to their communities. Teachers play an important role in effectively providing deep, experiential learning that emphasizes student voice. Through each of the four strategic priority areas, MFS will examine its approaches to teaching and learning and explore ways to provide immersive learning experiences that allow students to demonstrate their growth, personal development, and mastery in practical and visible ways.

VISION: Students will explore their passions in a way that allows them to apply content and skills to real-world contexts and communities. Student learning, both in and out of the classroom, will prioritize deep inquiry and foster a sense of balance and well-being.

GOAL: Honor health and well-being as central to our definition of student success. UPCOMING INITIATIVES:

• Review and strengthen academic and social-emotional supports for students • Build a daily schedule that balances educational program and student well-being • Host guest speakers and experts on wellness and social-emotional learning

GOAL: Broadly integrate approaches to curriculum, instruction, and assessment that best promote student growth and learning. UPCOMING INITIATIVES:

• Invest in professional development for teachers on strategic initiatives and authentic, inquiry-based approaches to teaching • Implement a new professional growth and evaluation program for teachers

Teaching and Learning Snapshot: The Grades 2-4 Spring Concert - Fourth Graders Take Ownership of an Entire Performance

The Lower School Grades 2-4 Spring Concert last May provided an example of new thinking surrounding a keystone arts event that encouraged some fourth graders to take leadership positions beyond the stage. Lower School Music Teacher Tiffany Jones was struck with the idea to have students perform many of the important support roles for the concert that in the past were filled by teachers, staff, or volunteer parents. This exemplifies experiential hands-on learning that aligns with the Strategic Plan goal for more real-world experiences for students.

“We had students in support roles for the concert working as technicians for sound and lighting, production assistants, and stage crew,” said Tiffany. ”The students blossomed in these roles.”

Inaya Chhipa ’30 was the sound technician. “My responsibility at the Spring Concert was basically a music coordinator,” she said. “It was tricky to play the music at the right time and Ms. Jones was really helpful. There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes and it all came together to make a great concert!”

Tiffany was eager for the students to take ownership of their show while also gaining a great deal of practical knowledge. “I hoped to provide students with a real-life sexperience,” she said. “I work on stages in Philadelphia and I see these roles and they are careers. I wanted the students to understand that it’s not always about the people on stage. It takes everyone to make a successful show.”

Trevor Lindner ’30 served in the role of lighting technician, and he was perched high atop the performance and rehearsals in the lighting/sound booth.

“I was responsible for lighting the stage, making sure the lights aren’t too bright or not bright enough,” he said. “What I liked most about being the lighting coordinator was being able to shine my light on people… and I also had a very good view.”

Concluded Tiffany: “I was so proud of the performers, the stage managers…each person took ownership of their roles and made the show a success. I could not be happier!” Two photos above: the Grades 2-4 Spring Concert last May provided some fourth graders with opportunities to assume leadership positions beyond the stage.

As a Quaker school, MFS advocates for the responsible stewardship of planet Earth and is committed to ensuring that all students understand the central role they play in conserving resources, living simply, and leading responsibly in an age of environmental degradation. Opportunities to learn what it means to be an environmental steward should extend to students of all ages and in all disciplines. There is great potential to use the MFS campus as a model and a large-scale classroom for educating students about environmental citizenship. Intentional choices about physical plant and curriculum can help reduce costs and carbon footprint, while deepening students’ understanding of and commitment to the fundamental Quaker testimony of stewardship. Through this strategic initiative, MFS has the potential to better align the school’s mission with its curriculum, business decisions, and actions as a Quaker institution.

VISION: The school’s campus and programs will demonstrate a commitment to environmental sustainability and its students will be actively engaged at all grade levels in stewarding a healthy relationship with our planet and its resources.

GOAL: Develop an approach to environmental stewardship at MFS, including curriculum and facilities, that is consistent with our Quaker values. UPCOMING INITIATIVES:

• Develop a long-term vision and plan for environmental sustainability at MFS • Conduct a baseline assessment of MFS’s environmental footprint and targets for improvement

Environmental Stewardship Snapshot: Student-Planned Lower School Earth Day Fair Caps School-wide Earth Week Celebration

The Lower School Earth Day Fair was a special opportunity for Upper and Lower School students to connect across divisions and learn about the environment around them. It involved three stations – flower planting, birdhouse making, and a visit with native wildlife from the Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge. The event was organized by the Upper School Environmental Committee.

“We were delighted to have Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge visit us with their Raptors and Reptiles program,” said Aidan Short ’23, a member of the student Environmental Committee. He noted that special guests Athena, the great horned owl, and Chevy, the corn snake, came to MFS to teach Lower Schoolers about the native wildlife around them. “It was great to see the many smiling Lower School students worked hard on maintaining the MFS community garden during Earth Week activities. faces of our youngest students as they watched and learned about such unique animals,” said Aidan.

Earth Week at MFS took place April 18-22 and featured a number of activities, including the Earth Day Fair, that helped raise awareness of our daily environmental impact. The special week was developed and coordinated by the Faculty and Staff Environmental Stewardship Committee (ESC).

Kicking off the week was a special surprise for students, faculty, and staff: a vibrant array of indoor plants were added to enhance the Stokes Hall Lobby. ESC Co-Clerks Preschool Assistant Pauline Williams and Lower School & Grade 5 Coding Teacher Rachel Kaplan shared that the plants were added to “serve as a reminder to the community that we should feel connected to more life forms than just other humans.” As the week progressed, students, faculty, and staff participated in Trashless Tuesday, ECO games, an All-School Meeting for Worship, and an Earth Day Assembly.

“It is very exciting to see the significant commitment to environmental stewardship that the school is making with the campus sustainability planning and energy assessment on the horizon,” said Pauline. “Moving forward, the ESC hopes to continue to enhance the curriculum already in place and help teachers incorporate environmental stewardship into their classrooms.”